[Update #2]: Blizzard is finally taking a serious look at reversing the rampant power creep in Overwatch!

[Update]: The experimental update has now gone live, though not without some notable changes.

While Blizzard has tried to address it time and time again, there is no denying that stacking up shields is still an incredibly effective strategy, especially when tanks like Orisa and Sigma can continue to fire while holding their shields. So in order to try to correct this once and for all, as well as spice up the meta as a whole, Blizzard has now brought in a brand new experimental update.

Brigitte, Orisa and Sigma have undergone some rather serious nerfs, while Symmetra, Zenyatta and Roadhog have gained a couple of buffs to help them out. Most surprisingly of all, Pharah has also received a rather peculiar rework to her flying mechanics! Here are the actual details:

Brigitte

• General

- Base health lowered from 200 to 150

• Inspire

- Total healing decreased from 130 to 90 (Healing reduced from 21 to 15 health per second)

- Self-healing is no longer reduced by half

Orisa

• General

- Base armor reduced from 250 to 200

• Halt!

- Radius reduced from 7 to 4 meters

- Projectile speed increased from 20 to 30

Pharah

• Hover Jets

- Movement speed increased 20%

- Regeneration rate reduced from 50 to 35 per second

• Barrage

- Duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds

Roadhog

• Scrap Gun

- (General) Ammo reduced from 6 to 5

- (General) Damage per projectile increased from 6 to 7

- (General) Recovery increased from 0.7 to 0.85 seconds

Sigma

• Experimental Barrier

- Health reduced from 900 to 700

- Regeneration rate reduced from 120 to 80 per second

• Kinetic Grasp

- Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds

Symmetra

• Photon Projector

- (Primary Fire) Delay before losing charge increased from 2 to 4 seconds

• Teleporter

- Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds

Zenyatta

• Orb of Destruction

- (Secondary Fire) Charge rate increased 15% (0.6 down to 0.52 seconds per orb)

- (Secondary Fire) Rate of fire increased from 8.5 to 9 shots per second

I'm not exactly sure this is the correct path forward, especially when it comes to Roadhog and how non-tanky he is, but I'm quite happy Blizzard is pumping out these experimental updates. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't, but there's always a bunch of interesting things to uncover by messing around with them. As such, I can only hope this one will also result in a much more fun and balanced experience, especially when it comes to the various tanks and their role in each match.

You can read a tiny bit more about these changes, as well as the reasoning behind them, over at the Overwatch forums. But if you don't feel like reading, you can also jump in-game and test them out in actual matches. Either way, enjoy!